Change Our Stars: An Unearthly Sound
by the26thDoctor
Summary: The mind of a young William Thatcher is made a buzz by a queer sound in the dead of a forest. But what are he, Wat and Roland to make of this strange man calling himself a Doctor and his fiery companion?


The forests of England were always too thick for William. He seemed to lose himself. And he could rarely, if ever see the stars. Every night, he would crane his little neck and look up, trying to catch a glimpse of those glorious little specks of light his father had told him about. Some nights, when there were no clouds and they had camped in a clearing, they night sky was as bright as day to him. Other nights, when the canopy all but covered the sky entirely, well…he felt more alone than his little mind could fathom.

I say little relatively. At 13 years old, William had grown up tall and lean. Sir Ector had only recently started letting him grow his hair out again, and now it landed on his shoulders as a golden orb. Tonight, he could see the stars. He could see all of them, even some he hadn't seen before. He liked to think Sir Ector noticed his little habit, and would find the clearest camping spot he could to give William the best view.

They all sat around the campfire, it's embers burning the warmth of promise into their hearts. The promise of a new day, bright like the fire's core. The promise of new riches, but none more valuable than a fire on this cold night. But to William, the most important promise it brought was the promise of new adventure.

"Why do you always look up like that, Will? You're gonna snap your neck." Wat shot at him, in between the bites of an apple fritter Sir Ector had acquired for him. Wat was a skinny ginger lad, a year or so younger than William. He was, it could be said, surprisingly skinny, given the amount the he ate. Okay, let's be fair, travelling with Sir Ector meant food wasn't always guaranteed. But when they had it, Wat ate like his tongue controlled his whole body.

"Lucky if I do. What better view to hold as your last." William replied, a wistful smile appearing across his lips.

"Yeah, we'll be out a pair of hands, won't we." Roland remarked. Roland had always been a fat boy, and only now was some of that fat starting to turn to muscle. Not much, mind you, but some. Roland always hated Will's poetic streak. He loved Will, but the words the spewed from his mouth made him use his noggin more than he liked to.

"Lesstop talkin' bout snappin necks eire." Sir Ector mumbled. Ah, Sir Ector. Ever loving, ever generous, ever inspirational. Ever drunk. The boys had long since figured out that he wasn't English by birth. When he was drunk and tired his natural Scottish accent slipped in and rendered conversation with him nearly pointless. "We got a mighty big 'fair 'head of us now. Sir Ector…needs 'is rest." Ector got up and grabbed at the wine pouch near Wat. Wat dutifully pulled the skin away. "Oi! Oi'll snap your neck'r somethin'…" Sir Ector managed to mumble out.

"But…but Sir Ector, you just gave this to me and told me to not let you have any more." Wat stumbled out.

"Well I's drunk when I said that, now wasn't I? So don't lissen to me drunk! Gimme that damn flask!" Ector lurched forward and snatched the skin from Wat's skinny little hand. He took a large, enormous swig and stood there for a moment, letting it digest. But the stomach was tired, and it staged it's little rebellion. What seemed like a pint of bile spewed from the nobleman's mouth and landed in a remarkably neat puddle just in front of Roland. "What the 'ell, Wat! I told you not to let me 'ave any more!" He yelled at the redhead before chunking the wine skin at him.

"What, I…but you…!" Wat stammered out.

"Sir Ector, maybe you'd better lay off a bit, sir. You're facing off against Count le Maître tomorrow and you know his record." Roland always felt it was his job to keep Sir Ector as close to sober as possible. Being the oldest of the squires by a year or so, he considered himself their unofficial leader. William was great at everything but too much of a dreamer to be relied on. And Wat was…well he was Wat.

"Aye! I do know 'is record. Thas why I'm drinkin' so much. Seven tournament wins. Including! Including 4 absolutely uncontested wins. The Man's a Master." Sir Ector replied dramatically.

"Yeah and he's killed 5 men with the lance." Wat added. Roland gave a condescending look. "Wat! I mean…oh." Wat extrapolated the context of his mindless musing.

"All men have their primes. Sir Ector was once considered the grand jousting champion." William said, still dreamily looking at the stars.

"I still am the grand champion! Everyone is just pretending!" Ector growled back.

"We know, we know Sir Ector." Roland interjected.

"You're just giving the younger ones a chance to assert themselves." The three squires laughed.

"Oi! Stop you're laughin'! It's true!" Ector's pleas fell on deaf ears as the 3 young boys laughed at their inside joke. William stopped, or rather descended his laughter to a concerned silence. The wind had picked up. Off in the distance he heard a foreign sound. His young ears had heard many a thing but nothing like what he was hearing now.

"Guys do you hear that?" The laughter around the campfire died down.

"Yeah." Roland said casually. "Sounds like a river or somethin'. Why?"

"No. No that's no river. It's coming from over there." He pointed south of them.

"You're 'earin' things lad." Ector reassured.

"No I heard it. It's gone now, but I'm sure of it." William stood up with intent.

"There's nothing over there, Will. And if there is, they probably don't want us disturbing them!" Wat argued.

"No, you don't understand. This was new. I've never heard anything like this. It sounded….it sounded…" William trailed off as he tried to analyze the sound in his head.

"It sounded like what?" Roland asked, annoyed.

Williams eyes lit up and his smile graced his face. "Magic!" With that he took off. He was always the fastest boy of all the manservants, squires and slaves in the tournaments, and he put that speed to use. He darted through the forest, avoiding stumps and trees and branches. He ran for what seemed like an eternity. But he couldn't hear the sound any more. He ran and ran until he finally ran out of breath near a short cliff. Stopping to collect his breath, he looked around the dark and dreary woods. He listened intently to the sound of footsteps approaching. Having spend so much time with them, he could hear Roland's heavy footsteps alongside Wat's light, almost hoppy bounce. But there were more. And none were Sir Ector's.

After a few moments, Roland and Wat stumbled upon him, themselves almost heaving from their exertion. Roland gave him a look as though William was drawing his final breaths. Wat was too out of breath to look anything other than tired.

"God love you, William. Surely no one else will." Roland managed out.

"Quiet will you? I hear something." Will shot out.

"Oh for the last time, Will, there's no…sound." The last part of the sentence came as a question as Roland recognized the distinct sound of two sets of feet walking towards them. "Wat, shut it!"

"I can't." Wat breathed out.

"We're trying to listen to something here, shut it!" Roland shot back.

"Two sets of feet. One's slightly bigger than the other." William guessed as the two feet got ever so close. Suddenly, a voice called out from the woods.

"OH, sorry bout that. That'd be Donna here. Big feet for a girl."

"Oi! What it, Space Boy!" The sound of hands hitting a body ensued.

"Hey, hey, hey! I'm just saying, you've got big feet for a girl."

"Oh! And do you know what they say about girls with big feet?"

"No, actually, I don't."

"They kick better!"

"Ow!" The voice of the man shot through as they stepped into the moonlight. Two figures, both completely alien in their dress and manners, stood before the boys.

The man was dressed in what appeared to be very fine material, a long brown coat flowing in the light breeze. The woman wore a blouse that fit very loosely, and her hair was on fire it was so red. William was scared, but not so bad. He wasn't afraid of the duo, but just at how relaxed the two seemed to be. The man stood there with his hands in his pantaloon pockets, a toothy smile beaming from his face. The woman stood confidently, her arms crossed in a seeming show of defiance. Not of the three boys, more a defiance of the world. The man whipped some sort of tool out of his pocket and, to William's shock, it gave off a light not born of fire, along with a whirring sound.

"That sound. It's familiar yet strange." William straightened out as his curiosity piqued.

The man looked at his tool as if it were telling him something. "Well, that's that then. No Zygonic readings from these three. There just three young boys." The man said.

"Yeah, three boys out in the woods in the middle of night. Seem a bit weird to you, Doctor?" The fiery woman said back.

"Well…yeah actually. Why are you three out here? And why are you out of breath, like you've been running or something?"

"We were running."

The man whipped out his tool, but this time held it as a weapon, and seemed to scan the woods around them as he twirled around. "Running from what? What was chasing you? Did it look human? Or big scary head, lot's of little sucker things sticking out?"

"Or a big wasp?" The fiery woman added.

"Don't…don't do that." The Man mumbled.

"What? You think you're the only one who can name off aliens just cause you been out there more?"

"As a matter of fact, yes! You're just gonna confuse them."

"Oi, space boy! If I wanna name off aliens, I'm gonna name off aliens." The fiery woman had her hands on her hips and was giving the man daggers with her eyes. "Right then, you, pretty blonde boy…giant wasps or no?"

"We weren't running from anything." William stuttered out, completely lost.

"He heard a sound." Wat managed to get out between gasps of air.

"What did it sound like?" The man asked. William didn't know how to answer. It was a completely unique sound, something with which he couldn't compare anything. "Was it, was it, was it a sort of low humming with small little bangs throughout?"

"Or the flapping of wasp wings but…bigger?" The fiery woman added.

"Donna, please, you'll just confuse the lads. Now come on. Was it metallic? Did it sound like it was fusion driven, was it…was it…" The man stopped with a concerned look on his face. "Wait a minute, why are dressed like that. It's almost like…medieval…"

Suddenly, William used his mouth to form a sound that drew the funniest of looks from Roland and Wat. A screeching, thrumming, groaning sound that rose and fell. The man's eyebrows raised as he seemed to have an epiphany. William continued the sound for an inordinately long period of time. When he finally stopped Roland thought his friend was crazy.

"What in the world was that?" Roland asked.

"It's the sound I heard and it came from that way…or that…or there." William remembered that he was lost and had no idea where the sound originated from.

"Yeah…sorry bout that. That's the TARDIS." The man confided.

"The wat?" Wat asked.

"TARDIS. It's my ship…well…not mine…but…" The Man looked as though he was about to give a story when he thought better.

"You mean ship? Like a sailing vessel? Are we that close to the ocean?" William asked excitedly.

"Well yes, and then again…mostly no. Actually completely no…though it can sail..." The man turned to the redheaded woman. "Bet you didn't know that."

"Alright, I'm tired of this." Wat got up from his knees and tried his best to intimidate the man and the woman. "If you don't start making some explanations now…I'm gonna rip you to tiny little shreds…I'll, I'll, I'll kick you…and tie…" His hands were trying their best to figure out what his mouth was trying to say. "Pain! Lots of pain." The man spied the fatter of the three chuckling, with the blonde one trying to hide his myrth.

"Okay, got it little guy. Why don't you just go over there and…keep an eye on us." The Man said as he ushered Wat away. "Well first off, we mean you no harm. In fact…we didn't even mean to be here. What year is it?"

Roland piped up. "Year of our lord thirteen hundred and twenty eight."

"I'm sorry did you say thirteen hundred?" The man asked.

"Yeah, what else would it be?" Roland laughed.

"Well, you'd be surprised. Sorry Donna, looks like we over shot our landing by about a thousand years or so. Undershot really." The man was consciously avoiding the angry look being given to him by his companion. "Anyways, I'm called The Doctor. Big foot over here…"

"Oi!" The woman shouted.

"…is Donna. We were supposed to be…well…somewhere else…on vacation, none the less. But I guess the TARDIS had different plans."

"I don't have big feet." Donna mumbled.

"Yes, you do. Our feet are the same size and your six inches shorter than me!"

"Oi! Spaceman. I've got normal sized feet. And you still haven't answered the question of why these boys are alone?!" Donna shouted out.

The Doctor froze. "Yeah, shouldn't there be, oh I dunno, an adult here with you?"

"Ah, that'd be Sir Ector." Roland smiled. "He's…shit! He's probably passed out drunk!" With that Roland darted off.

"Hey wait for me!" Wat chimed in. "And you two…pain! Lots of pain!" He shouted as he ran off.

"Sorry, it was lovely meeting you folks, but…have to attend to my lord. He's facing Count Le Maitre tomorrow and that man is…well he's a master!" William said politely as he started to run off. "Come back and see us with your ship if you can."

The Doctor and Donna stood there for a moment. "Well then, that's settled. Can we go to the floating beech of Chrystantine now?"

"Donna, we have to stay here and protect that man."

"He's a grown man. And a knight, no less. Certainly he's responsible enough to take on three boys."

The Doctor turned to Donna with his eyebrows raised. "You know, I was knighted?"

"Get out."

"Oh yeah. Queen Victoria."

"Well then, he may not be entirely qualified to be watching over boys. But still…"

"Donna, that's not the reason I want to stay."

"Well then what is?"

"The man he's facing tomorrow. Count le Maitre. Le Maitre is French for The Master!"


End file.
